Stop Being a Hero

Stop Being a Hero

Are you overloaded, continually context switching from email, meetings, projects and conversations? Do you feel like you are never giving your best to anything and are exhausted at the end of the day?

“What got you here won’t get you there.”

Marshall Goldsmith

Reactive Zone

If you are, then I bet you are spending too much time in the
reactive zone where your time and deadlines are controlled by others. A zone
that makes you feel like a hero because you divert a crisis, solve problems and
keep everyone happy.

It’s easier to do this than the stuff that is going to take
too much time to see a result or push you out of your comfort zone. That can
wait. Or can it?

Proactive Zone

The hero zone eats your time and energy, will eventually
cause burnout and stops you focussing on your growth and the growth of the
business.

If you want to control your own workload, then you need to stop being a hero and shift your focus to the proactive zone by delegating or dropping the reactive work.

Drop It

It may be possible to drop some of this reactive work all
together by –

Technology change

Process changes

Hard conversation if the business case does not
stack up

Brainstorming with your team for options

Are You Getting in Your Own Way?

Other than the hero feeling, what else has stopped you
delegating this work or dropping it before?

It’s just easier to do it yourself

You enjoy doing it too much

It only takes you a minute

Others won’t do it as well

No one is capable of doing it

The team is already busy on important work

What else?

Getting out of your way is critical here, it allows you,
your team and the business to grow.

Quick Win

At the end of the transformation shift, you will be able to use
your experience to make the most significant impact on the business as well as
find some time and energy to spend with your loving family.

It takes a while to make a change like this, so what is this
first quick win you can target? If you need an accountability partner, just let
me know.